Ten Reasons Why MMJ Is Cannabis Commerce’s Ball And Chain

Part 6: It’s taking the tranquilizing drug of gradualism

Copy this cat. Please.

A wise man once said, “there’s nothing wrong with being a copycat if you copy the right cat.”

When your crusade is herbal rights, and you’re currently getting nowhere fast, the right cat to copy might be Dr. Martin Luther King.

King and his Southern Christian Leadership Council provided a textbook example of how to win civil rights against overwhelming odds.

But Dr. King didn’t draw up the blueprint for his movement’s success — Gandhi did. Dr. King took Gandhi’s formula for upgrading second-class citizenship in India, then adapted it for the civil rights movement in the United States.

Herbal rights proponents would do well to replicate the tactics of men and movements that persevered through tremendous struggles to earn their freedom. —Lory Kohn

Was one of those successful tactics winning freedom state-by-state, or province-by-province?

Why no, it was not. Of course it’s the tactic of choice for MMJ advocates. So, while men the stature of Gandhi and MLK did things one way — which was good enough to effect paradigm change on a world stage without firing a shot — MMJ advocates keep plodding along their way.

Their way leaves just about everybody either out in the cold, or in “the sweltering summer,” dragging a ball and chain.

What do you think MLK would say about MMJ advocates “winning” restricted, ever-evolving initiatives, state-by-state?

We don’t have to suppose.

King had a term for it.

“Taking the tranquilizing drug of gradualism” has become an enduring phrase. It was delivered in the heat of the “I have a dream” speech, arguably the most memorable speech in history. By “gradualism,” King meant going state-by-state, locality-by-locality, to try and gain rights the long way around.

But the “I have a dream” speech was not delivered in Selma, for the sole purpose of removing racial barriers on an Alabama campus. Nor was it delivered in Memphis, for the sole purpose of integrating all the buses in Tennessee. No, King’s immortal speech was delivered before 200,000 supporters on the Capitol mall in Washington, DC — to demand civil rights for everybody, in every state, in one fell swoop.

It worked like a charm. President Kennedy watched the whole thing and rubber-stamped his approval pronto.

Taking the tranquilizing drug of gradualism gets you reserve seating here.

So, will Ganja Nation keep going its own way, taking the long way home, effecting quasi legalization state-by-state — or get it done in one fell swoop, taking a lesson from history?

I see the way it’s leaning, and, quite frankly, I’m befuddled by it.

Ask yourself: would the mission of securing civil rights for the state of Alabama alone have satisfied a prophet like Dr. King? Uh … when you have a day named after you, the worthwhile crusade is repealing prohibition.

Would kicking the British out of the province of Kashmir alone have satisfied a martyr like Mahatma Gandhi? You’re kidding, right? You don’t go on two-month long hunger strikes to free one province out of twenty.

Neither one of these revered leaders would recommend slogging out an herbal rights crusade state by state, locality by locality — “gradually” — for as long it takes. For just the chronically ill, no less.

But that’s how the headless MMJ organism rolls.

MMJ advocates aren’t copying a cat who set things straight once and for all.

They’ve replicating “victories” by other MMJ states — the lucky ones, overseen by the hospitality of Messrs. Ball and Chain.

Each “victory” seamlessly transitions into open season for hunting down rights. Soon, only a few stragglers remain. That’s what happens when you’re a gradualism junkie. It’s groveling. Plain and simple. It’s sitting at the back of the bus — while alcohol and tobacco ride up front. It’s settling for a lousy roach — when you can have the whole blunt.

Remind me again exactly why all of us are groveling? Every poll under the sun reveals ample support for vaporizing prohibition altogether.

Ah, it’s coming back to me, now.

It’s because we control our own destiny; we just don’t realize it!

I suppose when you’re always lugging heavy iron around, it helps to grovel — if you don’t want a lash across your back, too. “Yes, massa. No, massa. Two ounce limit? Thank you, massa!” That’s the lexicon of slavery spoken in MMJ states.

MMJ advocates have compliantly reprised the . . . dare I say it . . . nigger role.

There’s no way in hell black people will play it any more. They rose up as one, behind Dr. King, and threw off the chains. That wasn’t accomplished by going state-by-state.

In many places, women are still the nigger of the world. Not in Amercia, because women here did what it took to win complete freedom. They didn’t settle for statewide variations.

Women are no longer the “niggers of the world,” because they fought the long hard fight from Suffragette City to the White House to gain the vote. They stood up for women’s rights in every state. Period. No granting legislators carte blanche to modify regulations at their whims. They didn’t give them the chance to brainstorm bizarre laws like, “Only redheads and curly-haired women can vote in odd years.” State-by-state for women’s rights? No effing way!

Gays gave up their nigger status by battling their way out of the closet and into sitcoms and movies. They went from the closet to the mainstream in a determined fashion. They put out the message that if anyone was dumb enough to call them “faggot” — a variation of nigger — something bad was going to happen to whoever dropped the epithet.

But gay rights weren’t won by hopscotching state to state. No self-respecting gay would empower the state of California to change its laws every year to freaky fare like, “only flamboyant queens can vote this year; no bodybuilders.”

Blacks, women, and gays didn’t go through what they had to endure to gain random acceptance in one state here, one state there. They were way too smart for that.

That brings us back to MMJ advocates. Sigh.

This group ignores the lessons of history.

It goes its own foolhardy way.

It grovels.

It accepts degradation.

It gulps the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

I don’t know everything. But I don’t believe for a moment that taking the tranquilizing drug of gradualism in fifty states is appreciably harder than defeating prohibition in one nation. Furthermore, fifteen of sixteen MMJ states won’t accept your state’s MMJ card — which is utterly useless. How retarded is that?